Tears still come easily for Texas family grieving loss of Westbrook couple killed in June shooting

Brittney Cockrell, 37, and Michael Hayter, 41. The couple was shot to death on June 19 in what police have called a random shooting. Photo courtesy of Jeff McKinney

Time no longer works the same way for the people who loved Brittney Cockrell and Michael Hayter.

Some moments move too fast to process. “Are you sure?” Brittney’s father Jeff McKinney repeatedly asked police during that first phone call. “Could this be a mistake?”

Other times the clock barely seems to move at all, like during the endless, sleepless nights Cadence Cockrell, 18, spends scouring the internet for details about what happened to her mom and stepdad.

“It seems like five years ago,” McKinney said last week as he gazed out at the downtown Westbrook parking lot where a stranger shot and killed Cockrell and Hayter in front of their two young children on June 19.

In reality, only just over three months have passed. Enough time for Jeff and Brenda McKinney to collect their grandchildren, Mason, 11, and Mattie Belle, 7, and bring them back to Texas, where a horde of cousins, aunts and uncles showers them with love. Enough time for the family to begin to be able to smile remembering Brittney Cockrell’s flawless mustard chicken and Mike Hayter’s cringey jokes.

But tears still come easily.

“We’re taking it day by day right now,” said Elizabeth Hill, Cockrell’s older sister. “Every day you get a little bit stronger.”

Jeff McKinney, Brittney Cockrell’s father, in the Westbrook parking lot where a stranger shot and killed his daughter and son-in-law in front of their children three months ago. He and his wife have taken the grandchildren back to Texas with them. John Terhune/Staff Writer

‘NEVER SEEN ANYONE LOVE THAT MUCH’

Before they moved to Maine last winter, Cockrell, Hayter and their two kids lived in Clear Lake, Texas, surrounded by relatives.

“You can throw a stone and hit about four people you’re related to,” Hill said.

Michael Hayter Photo courtesy of Jeff McKinney

It’s the type of family where cousins are more like best friends, where Sunday evenings mean dinner with your sisters or your parents, where somebody is always trying to get off a joke – and everyone else is eager to fire back one of their own.

Cockrell and Hayter stood out for their love of life and the people they shared it with. She was a passionate thrift-store hunter and gave the best gifts, like the set of wooden benches she built for her sister’s front porch. Hayter was a charmer, a doting daddy, a great fishing buddy.

He treated Cadence Cockrell like his own.

“I’ve never seen anyone love that much,” she said. “You could talk to him about anything. Even if he didn’t have an answer, he’d give you the perfect answer.”

Laura McKinney was sad when her sister and the kids moved to Westbrook last winter to join Hayter, who’d been hired at a car dealership.

But she knew her sister already had fallen in love with Maine – the beaches, the quaint downtowns, even the cool weather that gave her an excuse to shop for cute jackets.

Cadence Cockrell, who had stayed behind in Texas, was getting ready to visit in July. She said her mom had told her all of the places they would go and things they would do, starting with a visit to Ferry Beach in Saco.

“She thought it was so pretty up there,” Cockrell said. “She was just so excited for me to see it.”

A RANDOM ATTACK

It was close to 11 p.m. on June 19 when Jeff and Brenda McKinney started getting calls from a number they didn’t recognize. They thought it was probably spam, didn’t pick up and turned in for the night.

Brittney Cockrell with her daughter Cadence Cockrell in July 2013. Photo courtesy of Jeff McKinney

A few miles away, Cockrell had spent the evening calling her mom and stepdad “probably 20 times.” She found it strange that they weren’t answering. Her mom always called back and Hayter never missed an opportunity to talk.

It was morning when the news reached Texas.

The newly settled Maine family of four was returning from a walk along the river in Westbrook when a man approached their car, raised his gun and shot Hayter in the neck. According to court documents, he then tried and failed to shoot Mason in the backseat and shot Cockrell multiple times just as a police cruiser pulled up.

The suspect, Marcel LaGrange, a 24-year-old South Portland resident with a history of making violent threats, was arrested after a group of bystanders wrestled him to the ground. By then, Cockrell and Hayter were dead.

One by one, their relatives learned what happened and went into shock.

But they had no time to stop. Within hours, the McKinneys were booking flights to get their grandchildren out of state custody and bring them safely home.

They spent more than a week living out of a hotel as they waited for approval to take Mason and Mattie Belle back to Texas. They took the kids out to restaurants, the pool and Funtown Splashtown – anywhere that might keep their minds off the horrors they’d witnessed.

Anytime Jeff McKinney had a spare moment, he found himself heading back to the site of the shooting, where there was a small memorial to Cockrell and Hayter and their blood still stained the ground.

‘SHE LOVED THIS PLACE’

The kids have been more resilient than the adults, at least in some ways, says Jeff McKinney.

Mason is smart and well-spoken like his dad and spends his time creating computer animations. He’s recently started junior high school and particularly enjoys band class, where he’s learning to play the marimba.

The McKinneys describe Mattie Belle as “more like a UFC fighter,” fierce and brave and blessed with her parents’ ability to summon a sassy comeback out of thin air. She recently started jujitsu. They hope it might be an outlet for the anger she feels over her parents’ killings.

Jeff McKinney, right, walks by a memorial for his daughter, Brittney Cockrell, 37, and Michael Hayter, 41, who were killed in the downtown Westbrook parking lot in June. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Some days the kids want to talk about their parents and what happened. They ask questions that knock the wind out of their relatives, like, “Do y’all want us to be here?”

Mattie Belle can’t stand the sight of red sauce – it’s too much like the blood that covered the kids’ legs and shoes after the shooting.

Mason broke down in band class one day when the snare drum’s rattle triggered his memory of the gunshots.

But their presence keeps the whole family moving forward.

“They bring so much joy to the situation,” Laura McKinney said. “Honestly, if they weren’t here? I don’t even know.”

Marcel LaGrange, 24, during his arraignment in August.

The McKinneys ask how the shooting could have happened. Why LaGrange was not in custody given his criminal history. Why didn’t police manage to find him sooner when they knew he was making violent threats online.

“He was screaming for somebody to lock him up,” Jeff McKinney said. “Pretty much everybody that I’ve talked to knew that it was a matter of when, not if, it was going to happen.”

Still, family members acknowledge they have a lot to be thankful for. Mason and Mattie, of course, but also the people of Westbrook who played hero that day: the group that disarmed LaGrange so that police could arrest him, the man who used his shirt to apply pressure to Brittney Cockrell’s gunshot wounds before first responders arrived, the family friend who helped the McKinneys manage the trip to pick up the kids.

Time is still working strangely for them. Sometimes a bird or a sunset or a porch bench will prompt powerful memories without warning. Gingerly, they’ve begun to be able to imagine their future, family dinners and Fourth of July cookouts and a whole lot of Mason and Mattie Belle.

“One day they’re going to want to come back here, maybe,” McKinney said on a recent visit to Maine as the Presumpscot River flowed behind him and he thought of his daughter. “I can see why she loved this place.”